Moncucco Torinese: sights, history and trails

Area already inhabited by the Romans where there was probably a temple dedicated to Jupiter, while the current inhabited area is of medieval origin born around the parish church of San Giorgio di Vergnano cited in the documents of the thirteenth century as Montis Jovis or Mons. Iovis. Moncucco is mentioned for the first time as Montecuch in the diploma confirming the possessions of William V of Monferrato by Emperor Federico Barbarossa issued to Belforte in 1164. In 1258 the lord of Montecucco signed an agreement with the municipality of Chieri for a defense of his castle by the town of Chierese. In 1290 the castle of Montecucco was occupied by troops of the municipality of Chieri to which it remained for more than a century, until in 1396 it passed under the possession of Theodore II Marquis of the Monferate. In 1631 with the Treaty of Cherasco passed under the Savoy as part of province of Asti. With the French occupation it became part of the Tanaro department in 1799 in the Piedmontese Republic and then from 1801 to 1805 in the Subalpine Republic annexed to the Napoleonic Empire in 1802.
In 1799 the Moncucchesi had asked for no use to be annexed to the department of Eridano with capital Turin, with the reorganization in 1805 the municipality passed under the district of Asti of the department of Marengo where it remained until the fall of Napoleon. In 1818 the municipality passed under the reorganization province of Asti that was again suppressed and transformed into a circle of province of Alessandria with the decree Rattazzi of the Minister of Interior Sardinia (native of Alessandria) Urbano Rattazzi.
In 1863 the inhabitants of Moncucco decided to add the adjective "Torinese" to mark the ties with Turin and in 1935 the municipality became part of the newborn. province of Asti.

It is home to a castle, with central court, flanked by towers and passage of preserved round. Located in the Castelli Aperti circuit, it houses the Museum of Gesso. It was built in the 14th century, but it underwent substantial changes over the following centuries.

The parish church has a facade of the architect Giuseppe Maria Talucchi (1810) and the main altar of Filippo Juvarra.

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  Castle of Moncucco Torinese
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  View of the parish church
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  Tempietto at the entrance of the village

• Borello Monica, Fassino Gianpaolo, The eclecticism of a civil engineer between '800 and '900. Giacinto Tosi and the arcades of Moncucco square, in «I Quaderni di Muscandia», n. 7 (2006), pp. 137–163.
• Bosco Carlo, Also in Gassino the Tricolore (1848-1918). Chronicle and history in Gassino and surroundings during the Italian Risorgimento, Turin, Scaravaglio, 2012.
• Marina Hat, Moncucco Torinese. Vergnano - Church of San Giorgio, in Between Gothic and Neogothic. The parish churches of Astigian, edited by Vittorio Croce, Asti, Savings Bank of Asti, 2012, p. 257.
• The hills of tradition. The Piemonte rural in the photographs of Don Emilio Bellino parish priest of Cinzano (1890-1920), edited by Gianpaolo Fassino, Cinzano, Municipality of Cinzano, 2015.
• Eydoux Ermanno, Fassino Gianpaolo, The territory of Moncucco Torinese among the oldest certifications and the anterior toponomastica, in «Magazine of history, art and archeology for the provinces of Alessandria and Asti», CIII (1994), pp. 63–81.
• Fassino Gianpaolo, Moncucco Torinese. Church of San Giovanni Battista, in Between Gothic and Neogothic. The parish churches of Astigian, edited by Vittorio Croce, Asti, Savings Bank of Asti, 2012, pp. 255–256.
• Fassino Gianpaolo, The re-edification of the parish church of Moncucco. Notes in margin to the bicentenary (1810-2010), in «Magazine of history, art, archeology for the provinces of Alessandria and Asti», CXX (2011), fasc. 2, pp. 85–92.
• Pedroni Daniela, Official and stately ambivalence in the thirteenth century: the "domini" of Moncucco, lawyers of the church of Turin and castellani di Rivoli, in «Subalpine historical-bibliographical bulletin», 103 (2005), pp. 39–152.